Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump held simultaneous rallies in Wisconsin on Wednesday — the first of two times this week the candidates will overlap in the Badger State in the closing days of their campaigns.
Harris’ rally was also a concert, held before a capacity crowd at Madison’s Alliant Energy Center.
“We have six days left in one of the most consequential elections of our lifetime, and we have work to do — but we like hard work,” Harris told cheering supporters Wednesday evening. “And make no mistake, we will win.”
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At the same time, Trump rallied his supporters at the Resch Center in Ashwaubenon outside Green Bay. His campaign sought to shore up support in northeast Wisconsin, including the contested “BOW” counties of Brown, Outagamie and Winnebago.
“I have to begin by saying, 250 million Americans are not garbage,” Trump said to open his remarks, a reference to recent comments by President Joe Biden.
Before the rally, Trump held a brief press conference in a Trump-branded garbage truck. He delivered his remarks at the Resch Center while wearing a reflective vest.
Six days out from the end of an unprecedented election cycle, neither candidate has a clear edge, either nationally or in Wisconsin. The campaigns hope these rallies will fire up supporters in the closing days.
Harris appeals to young voters with music in Madison
Under an overcast sky, thousands of people trickled in to the Madison arena over the course of Wednesday afternoon. Many wore shirts or carried signs indicating their support of the Harris campaign.
Inside the Veterans Memorial Coliseum lobby, a small table held supplies for making friendship bracelets. Paige Dessart spelled out “H-A-R-R-I-S” on hers, next to Maddie Wirtz-Olsen and Elena Tomchek.
All students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Dessart and Wirtz-Olsen both said they’re motivated by Harris’ stance on education. Tomchek said reproductive rights is her biggest issue since the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 decision overturning the federal right to an abortion.
“Honestly, I’m really stressed,” said Tomchek about the approaching Election Day. “I remember very vividly finding out Roe v. Wade (had been) overturned, and it was just so heartbreaking.”
Supporters packed the arena to capacity, with light-up wristbands flickering between red and white – a nod to UW Badgers. They were treated to a musical lineup geared at younger voters, with Gen-Z favorites Gracie Abrams and Remi Wolf, and acts for the millennial crowd, including Mumford & Sons and Matt Berninger of The National.
“For many of us here on stage and in this crowd tonight, this is either the first or second time that we’ve had the privilege of voting in a presidential election, and as we know, we’ve inherited a world that is struggling,” said Abrams before her performance.
“It’s easy to be discouraged, but we know better. We know that unless we vote and keep our democracy intact, there is nothing we will be able to do to fix it when it is our turn.”
In between musical performances, Democratic lawmakers spelled out the stakes of the election. The crowd cheered when Gov. Tony Evers called for a restoration of Roe v. Wade and LGBTQ+ protections.
“I want to leave my kids and grandkids with a better world and a brighter future than what we inherited,” said Evers.
Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin also spoke, describing her tough reelection campaign against Republican Eric Hovde.
“The stakes could not be higher for our fundamental reproductive freedoms, for our health care, for our economy,” Baldwin said. “We have the choice to embrace our state motto, ‘Forward,’ or let Eric Hovde take us backwards.”
Baldwin also earned big cheers from the young crowd when she talked about her role writing part of the Affordable Care Act, which allows people under 26 to stay on their parents’ health insurance.
As rain fell outside, at least 1,000 people were ushered into an overflow area on the convention center’s campus. Harris herself took the stage more than two hours in. It was her eighth visit to Wisconsin since launching her campaign in the state in July.
Harris praised the young people in the crowd for their activism on climate change, gun violence and abortion access.
“You all are rightfully impatient for change,” she said. “This is not political for you. This is your lived experience. And I see you, and I see your power.”
She also said she would cut taxes for the middle class, fight price gouging, address affordable housing concerns, and expand Medicare to cover home care for seniors. And she called on the crowd to cast early ballots and appeal to their family and friends.
“Here is my pledge to you: as president, I pledge to seek common ground and commonsense solutions to the challenges you face,” she said. “I am not looking to score political points. I am looking to make progress.”
Trump highlights Biden ‘garbage’ gaffe
At the Resch Center, Trump and other speakers seized on Biden’s response to comedian Tony Hinchcliffe calling Puerto Rico “a floating island of garbage” during a Trump rally at New York’s Madison Square Garden.
“The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters,” Biden said Tuesday before pausing and continuing. “His demonization of Latinos is unconscionable and it’s un-American.”
In a statement on social media, Biden said he intended to refer to Hinchcliffe, not Trump supporters. Harris has distanced herself from those comments, saying she “strongly disagree(s) with any criticism of people based on who they vote for.”
During his speech, Trump asserted that Harris agreed with Biden’s comment.
“Without question, my supporters are far higher quality than Crooked Joe or lyin’ Kamala,” Trump said.
Trump also pushed back on Democrats’ framing him as a threat to American democracy for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election and drawing comparisons between his Madison Square Garden rally and a pro-Nazi event at the venue in the 1930s.
“This week, Kamala has been comparing her political opponents to the most evil mass murderers in history,” said Trump, referencing comments Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz made earlier this week.
Trump also encouraged his supporters to request mail-in ballots and to vote early, practices he previously criticized in the 2020 election. He also emphasized Wisconsin’s importance in the presidential race.
“If we win Wisconsin, we win the whole thing,” he said.
Trump was joined in the Green Bay area by former Packers quarterback Brett Favre, who is supporting the former president’s bid to return to the White House. When he took the stage, Favre said he had never spoken at a political event before the rally.
“The stakes are incredibly high,” he said. “Families across Wisconsin are struggling to make ends meet. … People are losing hope in the American dream.”
Favre was implicated in a welfare fraud scandal in Mississippi, where he coordinated with state officials to procure welfare funds to finance an $8-million volleyball stadium, according to the Mississippi Free Press.
Roughly a dozen supporters inside the rally wore Favre jerseys. One of those attendees was Steve Leider of Manitowoc County, who wore a Favre Packers jersey and a Cheesehead with a red Make America Great Again cap placed on top.
“I was always a Favre fan,” he said. “I’ve always been a conservative, socially more liberal. I like to keep my mind open no matter what.”
Current Packers running back AJ Dillon, who is on injured reserve and is expected to miss the entire 2024 season, also was at the rally and received a shout-out from Trump.
Trump also spoke at length about the southern border, a top GOP issue. Supporters at the rally listed immigration as one of their top issues this election. That included Manitowoc resident Frank Wesley.
“We’re letting people in here that we don’t know who they are, they come up here and do evil things,” he said.
Trump claimed that the United States has become an “occupied country” due to illegal immigration, calling Election Day “liberation day in America.”
Trump also said he would invoke the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to lead a mass deportation effort to remove undocumented immigrants from the country. He also called for using the death penalty on any migrant who kills an American citizen, to which he received one of his biggest cheers of the night.
“I will rescue every city and town that has been invaded and conquered,” Trump said. “We are being invaded and we are being conquered.”
With days to go, polls show a tight race
As the campaigns make their closing arguments, the latest poll from the Wisconsin-based Marquette University Law School, released Wednesday, shows Harris ahead of Trump by a point among likely voters — a statistical dead heat considering the poll’s margin of error. And an estimated five percent of Wisconsinites remain undecided.
The candidates will each also return to Wisconsin at least one more time this Friday.
Trump will hold a rally at Milwaukee’s Fiserv Forum, where the Republican National Convention took place this summer and where the Harris campaign held a rally during the Democratic National Convention.
Harris will also have a rally in Milwaukee on Friday, with musical guests including GloRilla and the Isley Brothers. The campaign has not yet released the exact location.
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